Fulham downed a miserable Everton team on the opening day of the season only to see Brentford wipe the floor with them in their own backyard last time out. Arsenal vs Fulham is scheduled for a 3pm BST kick-off on Saturday, August 26, 2023. The match will take place at Emirates Stadium in north London. Arsenal will be without Takehiro Tomiyasu after his red card against Crystal Palace, meaning we may finally see Gabriel start a game after starting the last two on the bench. Gabriel Jesus is back and available to play in a huge boost for the Gunners. Elsewhere, Folarin Balogun and Albert Sambi Lokonga are nearing returns, but neither appear to be in Mikel Arteta’s plans.
As was the case in the second half of their opening Premier League encounter with Nottingham Forest, Arsenal struggled to click into gear against a well-drilled Palace defence and had their backs against the wall for the final few moments on Monday night, where Takehiro Tomiyasu’s contentious red card hardly helped matters. A composed Martin Odegaard penalty propelled Arsenal into the lead before Tomiyasu picked up two questionable bookings in the space of seven minutes – sparking plenty of post-game debate – but the Gunners’ penchant for London derbies came to the fore as they maintained their perfect start to the new term.
As one of only three teams to open the 2023-24 Premier League campaign with a pair of victories, Arsenal are sitting pretty on a podium spot in the fledgling standings, currently perched in third place behind champions Manchester City and early pace-setters Brighton & Hove Albion. Victory at Selhurst Park saw Arsenal end a four-game losing streak on Monday nights under Arteta, who also masterminded the Gunners’ 200th Premier League clean sheet on the road – only Manchester United (205) and Chelsea (204) have more – but their defensive deficiencies at home are no secret. Indeed, Arteta’s men have just one shut-out to show from their last eight Premier League contests in front of the Emirates faithful, but Fulham’s recent displays in front of goal have not embodied that of a side capable of giving the Gunners a good run for their money.
Now that the protracted and unwelcome Aleksandar Mitrovic transfer saga has finally come to a close with the Serbian’s big-money move to Al-Hilal, Fulham boss Marco Silva is busy drawing up plans for life after the talismanic marksman, which has not got off to the best of starts. Following a smash-and-grab win at Everton’s headquarters – which could have very easily gone the Toffees’ way on another day – Silva’s side were subjected to a 3-0 humbling at the hands of Brentford, as a Bryan Mbeumo brace and Yoane Wissa strike did the damage at Craven Cottage, where Tim Ream was also made to take the walk of shame.
With summer signing Raul Jimenez doing little to show that he can fill Mitrovic’s boots during his earliest days with the Cottagers, this week’s shot-shy visitors are languishing in an unlucky 13th place in the table ahead of their trip to the Emirates, where many will expect their recent sequence of away results to continue. Indeed, Fulham have followed a loss-win-loss-win pattern on their travels since the start of May, and only two of their away fixtures in the 2022-23 Premier League campaign ended level – the most recent being a goalless stalemate with Chelsea in early February.
The Fulham faithful would likely accept a 0-0 at the Emirates if it was offered to them before kickoff, but the Cottagers fell to a 2-1 loss in this fixture in August 2022 before a 3-0 beating at Craven Cottage, where a Leandro Trossard playmaking masterclass helped extend Arsenal’s unbeaten streak against their visitors to 10 matches.
Fulham will be without captain Tim Ream after his sending-off agaisnt Brentford, weakening an already weak defence. Summer signing Calvin Bassey should deputise. Joao Palhinha came off the bench last time out and should be fit to start in a huge boost for Marco Silva, though Wilian is a doubt. Arsenal have not been the most convincing so far this season, recording two narrow wins from two but hanging on in the final moments of both. That should not be a problem against Fulham, who look both blunt up top without Aleksandar Mitrovic and weaker than ever at the back. That’s because we have never lost a home league game against the Cottagers in 30 meetings – the most one team has faced another at home without ever losing in English league history.
And if you’re more interested in recent times, then Fulham are winless in their last 10 games against us home and away, and have failed to prevent us scoring since February 2009. We also have very differing recent records when it comes to London derbies, with us unbeaten in our last 13 capital clashes including Monday’s win at Crystal Palace, while the Whites’ 3-0 home loss to Brentford extended their winless run against London rivals to seven. With all that being said, Fulham are on the brink of winning their opening two away games in a top-flight campaign for the first time at the 29th attempt, having defeated Everton 1-0 on the opening weekend which came before their surprising heavy defeat to the Bees.
Last season saw the newly-promoted side finish in 10th spot, their best season in 11 years which could have been even more eye-catching as they occupied sixth position in February, before Marco Silva’s team fell away in the final few months. Looking to improve on that, the Portuguese boss has added Wolves pair Raul Jimenez and Adama Traore to his ranks, as well as Ajax centre-back Calvin Bassey but last week saw club icon Aleksandar Mitrovic depart to Al Hilal for a reported £50 million, seemingly giving the club room to manoeuvre in the final week of the transfer window.